Community Foundations' Assets Hit $29.8 Billion.

The survey says: that, at least for 1999, gifts, grants paid and assets at U.S. community foundations concurrently boomed with a strong stock market and U.S. economy.

The Columbus Foundation in Ohio collected data from 582 community foundations and saw total gifts received in 1999 exceed $3.6 billion, a 26 percent growth from 1998's $2.8 billion -- or eight times the $427 million recorded in 1988.

James I. Luck, president of the Columbus Foundation, said, "The key trend is showing us that if we went from $2.8 billion to $3.6 billion in one year for gifts received, in the next decade the field will possibly see $10 billion a year."

He explained, "We are doubling every four or five years. This is a conservative estimate. But, $3.6 billion, even by itself, is a marvelous resource for the communities that are served."

Grants paid by community foundations exceeded $1.9 billion, an increase of 26 percent or more than $1.5 billion granted in 1998.

With the e-conomy currently in the dumps, can such fiscal progress at foundations continue into 2001? Luck maintained, "The prospects for survey figures of the year 2000 will be mixed, for sure, and every community fund is different in the composition of gifts."

Most community funds work for long-term relationship building, he explained. While 30 percent to 50 percent are estates, appreciated gifts are keyed to the stock market, and that will certainly impact the community funds field in 2000, Luck said.

Luck, who made his comments in early December, said his foundation's gifts from individual donors were down an estimated 50 percent, yet the aggregate gifts from all sources was just down 20 percent. "Our current gifts from appreciated assets from living donors are about half the average. The year is not over and there could be a turnaround. The month of December, on the average, is where we receive about 35 percent of our annual gifts."